1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to network services. More particularly, the present invention relates to provisioning of network services.
2. Background Art
As consumer desire to access information has increased over time, providers of such access have increasingly turned to tiered systems to automatically parcel out and bill for such access. Tiered systems allow a subscriber to choose a particular tier based on their specific usage, which can increase subscriber satisfaction with their service.
Unfortunately, tiered systems require a robust provisioning system to enforce the tiers, and some conventional insecure provisioning systems used to create and enforce such tiers have been compromised by subscribers in order to access information outside their particular subscription. This has led to a loss of subscribers due to congestion perceived as over-subscription, and has reduced the cost effectiveness of the tiered system overall.
Additionally, access providers, such as internet access providers (ISPs), have bundled different types of network services in with their primary access subscription in order to better compete with other ISPs. But, this bundling has led to ever-increasing costs of hardware used to provide each type of network service, and thus any susceptibility to manipulation by subscribers has a multiplicative risk of loss to the ISPs.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing cost effective systems and methods for secure provisioning of network services.